Mercury's Foot Was Out Of Place
by Psyga315
Summary: A One-shot taking place after Volume 3, Episode 9. As the Grimm invade the Kingdom of Vale, Emerald takes the time to call out Mercury over his fight with Ruby.


[Author's Note: I wrote up this fanfic mainly because I was a little stumped as to _what_ Ruby could do to stop the Pyrrha vs. Penny match and how Mercury's involvement broke the "stay put" order that Cinder gave. I wrote this fanfic, hoping someone would point out an explanation. Thankfully, an anonymous user pointed out that Ruby just needs to distract Emerald. I sort of think it'd wouldn't matter (it was only a matter of time before Pyrrha used her polarity on Penny's swords) but it helps that I got some idea. So thank you, and enjoy.]

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Emerald stood on the rooftop of a destroyed burger shop as she saw the Grimm pass through its streets. She kept her distance from them, though by this point, the Grimm wouldn't bother with her. Not when there's tastier prey in the arena. Any stragglers that _did_ decide that she was easy pickings would pay with their lives. A swift slash to the head was enough to kill them.

After a few minutes of watching the carnage, she heard the sound of metal stomping on concrete. She turned around.

"So, what did I miss?" Mercury asked her.

"Well, Cinder gave this beautiful speech and now the Grimm are amped up. Roman and Neo are doing their thing." She pointed up to the sky, where one Atlas gunship fired upon two others. "And Adam's bringing in reinforcements."

"So what now?" Mercury asked.

"Now we wait for Cinder to give us instructions for the next step." Emerald sighed as she remembered something. "Hey, Merc, you didn't happen to see that kid during that fight, right?"

"Which one?" Mercury asked.

"Ruby." That's when Mercury smirked.

"Oh yeah, I actually did." Mercury said.

"What?" Emerald turned and glared at him.

"I was walking in the maintenance hall and that little squirt just happened to be there and-"

"She _saw_ you!?" Emerald growled. "Mercury, you were explicitly told to _lay low_!"

"I did just that. Not my fault she just happened to cross my path." He said.

"… Did you at _least_ pretended your leg was hurt?" Emerald asked. Mercury simply chuckled and shook his head. Emerald simply pressed the palm of her hand up to her face. "Great! Just great! Cinder's gonna be mad when she hears this!"

"Okay, I'm confused. What's the problem here?" Mercury shrugged.

"Oooooh, I don't know…" Emerald rolled her eyes before she began to change her voice. "How about the fact that now your cover's blown!? No, not just that, but you probably also blown _my_ cover _and_ Cinder's cover!" Emerald sighed. "At least you didn't pick a fight with her."

"… Yeah about that." Mercury said.

"… You didn't." Emerald gritted her teeth.

"I sure did." Mercury kept his cocky grin. Emerald was close to pulling her hair.

"WHY!?" Emerald shouted, though only the mass of Grimm could hear her. Some of them _did_ take the time to notice her anger, but simply shrugged and kept going to the Amity Colosseum.

"I was trying to stop her from interfering in the match." Mercury said.

"… How. Can. A stupid little kid. Hope to stop a freaking match!?" Emerald closed in on Mercury and furled her eyebrows. "She can't just get on stage and say 'stop the match'. _Especially_ considering she's the sister of the bimbo we worked so hard to frame!" Emerald said.

"She could have pulled a fire alarm." Mercury shrugged and chortled.

"… No. I see what this is about. You were just looking for an excuse to fight someone." Emerald stepped away from Mercury as he held up his hands.

"Guilty as charged." He said.

"Out of all the people you could have fought… you picked the girl!?" Emerald asked.

"Again, she came across my path and I couldn't really just walk out in broad daylight." Mercury said. Emerald groaned. "Look, Cinder's nice and all, but I just hate how all her instructions to me are to simply forfeit or lose."

"Are… Are you questioning Cinder? There's a reason you had to lose to Yang! A reason you had to back out of fighting Pyrrha!" Emerald said.

"I could have beaten them easily! Do you think I _liked_ kicking a kid in the gut?! I mean, I _did_ , but the point was that I got as much enjoyment from that as I did when we fought those coffee guys. More enjoyment than I should have gotten out of beating a defenceless girl. Hold back. Lay low. Those aren't exactly instructions I can agree to. I have desires. I have needs. And sometimes those needs are that I at least beat _someone_ up." Mercury said. Emerald took a moment or two before she sighed.

"I… I'm not mad at the fact that you decided to, for no reason, beat up a child. I'm mad at the fact that the child you chose to beat up was a key factor in our plan." Emerald said.

"Well, at least I chose not to kill her when I had the chance." Mercury said.

"Oh thank fu- What!?" Emerald slapped Mercury. "Do you know how much backlash would have happened if you straight up _murdered_ someone? No one gives a care for the Faunus bookstore owner, but a Huntress in the making? People would go crazy! Not to mention you'd be on the hit list for at least _three_ people! You should be _glad_ you didn't kill her! You're so terrible at keeping your cover!" Emerald could have continued, but she stopped when she felt a soft hand on her shoulder.

"Ease yourself, Emerald." Cinder's smooth, soft voice helped calmed Emerald as she exhaled. "It wouldn't have mattered anyways. Even if Ruby _managed_ to stop the fight, we would _still_ have the aces up our sleeves. After Mercury's 'injury', our plan simply became a bomb. There would have been no defusing it. The best _any_ of them could do is delay the inevitable." Cinder walked a bit until she was in-between Mercury and Emerald.

"But, I'll give you credit where it's due. Mercury _did_ indeed go against my orders. But at least there was only _one_ person who saw him, and it was fortunate enough for it to be the one person who had the deck stacked against her. Our cover's blown, yes, but look around you." Cinder smirked as she extended her hands out. Emerald and Mercury took a moment to see two giant Nevermores fly over their heads, followed closely by a Goliath stomping through an empty building and demolishing it.

"This phase of our plan is complete. There's no more need to keep hidden in the shadows. It doesn't matter if one Huntress has seen what we can do now. It doesn't even matter if _all_ the Huntsmen and Huntresses in that coliseum know who we really are now. It's too late for any of them to do anything about it. And soon, I'll have what's rightfully mine." Cinder smirked and stepped to the edge of the rooftop.

"So… What's the next step?" Emerald asked.

"You and I will head to Beacon Academy. With everyone distracted with this invasion, we'll have plenty of time for us to turn the place upside down until we find the Fall Maiden. As for _you_ , Mercury." She walked towards Mercury and placed her hand on his chin. Emerald looked away. "I apologize for having you hold back, but now that we have no need to hide, I feel like it's time for you to fight at your full potential." Cinder could see a genuine smile on Mercury's face.

"Who do you want me to mess up?"


End file.
